@dystopiax:

Actually, I had just my first positive recovery with Micheal from the impound. His long lost Bentley-A-Like turned up there. So it's not entirely broken, just mostly.

really? ... So there is a free(?) app to train the dog(?) and thats only available on iPhone? ... thats terrible.

Yeah it just happened to me to one of my cars, however I still have a couple that have been in my garage consistently. It's definitely a widespread bug though. I also find it annoying that the BAWSAQ is down most of the time because that's the one that changes based on what your friends do and the R* club servers are down. Did a few of the missions that affect stock prices and was unable to sink money into the appropriate stocks cause of that.

@dystopiax: I think the missions that affect stock prices are for the LCN market, not BAWSAQ. They're separate.

- That Trevor suddenly breaks character and cares for someone. The fame and shame mission seemed a little forced to me.

Not really considering how much he clearly cared that Michael was alive. It's not crazy to see that he'd care for his kids too.

I specifically had a mission where Lester has you kill a guy and mentions that you might want to buy Fruit stock. I checked and it definitely wasn't on the LCN market.

I dunno if this helps the guys with the disappeaaring car problems but my cars seem to appear in my garage where the collectors edition cars are. I dunno if that garage appers in regular copies but id assume it does.

@jouseldelka: Just found out, the RDR witness system is in the game, sometimes. If you rob someone or whatever and they turn into an enemy dot but don't attack you, they call the cops on their cell phone. Kill them, and no cops (assuming the cops don't see you).

No, I checked those garages, they're not there. They're just gone.

I like that there's so much to do in the game, the characters are well thought out and it looks good graphic wise.

I don't like that when every time the game auto saves it asks me if I want to put the auto save on my HDD or cloud. Is there a way to turn that off (without turning the auto save off entirely)? I'm on the 360.

It might just be me overlooking something, but I still haven't found a way to restart or exit missions manually. If I'm right about this, then it's something I really dislike. As some others, I hate the driving, but I can also see why so many other likes it. The aiming when you're driving is fucking stupid, so eff that... All in all I think it's a solid game, but the driving, drive-aiming and the lack of simple mission options like restart or exit is something I can't overlook too easy. If anybody knows how to restart or exit a mission manually, please do tell!

My only legitimate gripe is with the pop-in on the PSN/fully-installed version of the game. Otherwise everything is just peachy for me.

BUT, having said that, I'm really hating the way Trevor and Franklin keep getting referred to as T and F. There are a few other things they've called out by the first letter of their name during the storyline in this game and I gotta say, it's soooooooo aggravating.

@twistedh34t: I'm not getting that issue on 360...maybe check your settings?

I've gotta say, for the most part GTAV has 100% lived up to my astronomical hype for it. First and foremost, I really love the variety of the mission types. After GTAIV was 90% "drive here, shoot these guys, escape the cops" having crazy ass drug trips and intricate CEO assassinations is so refreshing, not to mention the heists. The dialogue is fantastic (Trevor's rants are brilliantly performed) and the game world is beautifully realized. The driving is miles improved over IV (especially with Franklin's special) and the side activities are well realized and actually carry some weight to them; playing a round of golf and getting a stamina boost is surprisingly gratifying.

My gripes are rather minor. Overall, while I'm enjoying the game immensely and the following opinion is liable to change (I'm only up to the second heist), I would still say that Red Dead Redemption is Rockstar's best game this generation and that San Andreas is still the best GTA game. Apart from the random events and the impossible-to-find collectibles, I don't feel like there's much incentive to explore the world, nor are there any emergent activities to partake in apart from the usual GTA "let's start shooting people and see how long we can survive" past time. Certainly, there are dozens of structured activities, but I really miss Red Dead's wilderness challenges and San Andreas's gang warfare, those sorts of activities you can just start doing in almost any given place as opposed to going to a mission marker. Along the same lines, I was really disappointed when I found out that hunting was relegated to a series of missions rather than present as a constant system, a la Red Dead.

However, my largest disappointment was with how small the desert turned out to be in comparison to the rest of the map. Deserts are my favorite video game environment and the Bone County/Las Venturas section of San Andreas was the best part of that whole game. To see the "Grand" Senora Desert take up such a comparatively infinitesimal part of the game world was a big let down.

Oh, another dislike: there is no "Instant BF Injection/ATV" button on my controller. This seems like an oversight.

Shooting while driving is still not fun at all, If that is going to happen at least learn some stuff from Sleeping Dogs.

This game could have taken some cues from Saints Row. Especially their garage system.

Like:

If this is what they can milk out of a 7 year old system with 512 MB of ram, I cannot wait for next gen. The game has so much eye candy that it makes my teeth rot just looking at it.

Dislike:

No metal station. This has been a depressing trend lately, it used to be that every open-world game had a RoadRunner Records station that played some really good metal (Devin Townsend, Mastodon, Opeth, etc.) But in both Saints Row IV and GTA5, metal is absent.

20% complete.

Likes - Presentation: More or less all round other than anti aliasing, this game is great to explore due to very well done visuals that at times are surprisingly realistic, the sense of scale is very impressive also, seriously take a few minutes just to wander around the city, through back alleys etc on foot and it's a strikingly immersive experience.

Gunplay: Vastly improved since GTA IV but that was to be expected, still it's nice to play GTA with solid gunplay mechanics.

Driving: I was actually a fan of GTAIV's driving mechanics but not so much that I thought it should become a staple of the series, just a nice alternative to the more arcadey driving of previous GTA's and now V, that being said it's a blast to drive in GTA V, I very rarely crash and can do more or less what I intend.

Dislikes: FRAMERATE: This is a massive bummer and unfortunately holds the game back especially in combat/missions, the gunplay is great but all too often isn't allowed to shine due to the game really slowing down and feeling sluggish when the action kicks off, hopefully a patch will be released to fix this issue.

I'm really enjoying the car handling now. It took about an hour or two to get used to but I feel like I am driving better in this game than any other open-world game now.

@nodima: They only use the first letter of their names for a reason. While on heists it lets them communicate without giving away their real names. They are probably justy so used to doing it now that its second nature.

I've only just transitioned to Trevor for the first time, so I'm still no doubt a little early. It's all been pretty great so far, though the one thing that I'm a bit disappointed by is that there doesn't appear to be as much side stuff as I was expecting. I went into this thinking this was San Andreas 2.0, where there'd be an almost Elder Scrolls level of shit to get involved with. It's especially noticeable when I choose to hang out with someone and my only options are often either getting drunk (which also sucks compared to how it was in GTAIV), visit a strip club, or watch that same weird Spanish/French art house movie parody thing... which I frankly never want to watch ever again. Once was enough, and I know it's intentionally meant to make no sense whatsoever, but sheesh that thing is just mentally exhausting to sit through.

I'm still (I would imagine) pretty early, though, so hopefully things start to branch out a little more as it goes on. It's just the reason why I love open-worlds is because of the stuff you can get up to in the world; if I'm going to be playing story mission after story mission, then that pretty much defeats the whole purpose of it having an open world.

Also, as already mentioned in here, requiring that smartphone app to teach Chop tricks is total BS. Besides throwing the ball, it doesn't seem like there's much he can do anyway, which is super disappointing. Oh, and yeah, the aliasing is pretty rotten. Framerate's not ideal either, but I've found that to be much easier to tolerate.

Besides all that the game's great. World is insanely detailed, I think the soundtrack's got a decent selection ('specially in that 90s pop station), and the core gameplay of shooting/driving is undoubtedly the best the series has had.

@dystopiax err?

Another like: I never really played with the TV that much in GTA IV but I decided to turn it on here several times and the cartoons they have on like Moorehead....they sure are entertaining. Just the fact they have full episodes of fake cartoons in here is great.

I think it's awesome that they brought that show back, but now as a cartoon!. It was one of my favourite shows to listen to in Vice City Stories. It's a shame you never gave the TV a chance in GTAIV, though, as it had a lot of great stuff on there!

Dunno if that's because that's how it is in Los Angles, but there's just not enough random taxis. In GTA IV, waving down taxis was normal. They were everywhere. Now, I mostly need to resort to calling it in.

Just watched my first couple of shows. Howitzer plays Howitzer on Howitzer (or whatever) was pretty damn great.

I'm just really disappointed at the lack of in-building environments available to the player. Walking into Burger Shots, Hospitals, and the like was always entertaining and immersive for me, so I'm pretty disappointed to see that stuff relegated to a few gas stations and convenience stores you can rob.

Now that I've played a huge chunk of the game I fall in love with it the more I play it. Some of the story/heist missions just end up in these completely bonkers places you never see coming. The heist at the small bank puts the entirety of Payday 2 to shame. I can't think of another open world game with setpiece missions on this scale, it makes Saints Row look like a joke at times.

I've never loved a GTA game before. I liked IV a bunch despite being constantly irritated by some of its design, but V fixes almost all of that. Occasionally scripting will break in a mission or there will be an annoying "JUST GET THE FUCK IN THE CAR TREVOR!" moment, but all of those issues are miniscule when compared to the scope and craziness of the game.

I'll make this easier and just say my dislikes(all my own opinion of course):

• The cross-hair is so small I honestly can't see it during shoot outs. I was using free aim but had to go back to auto aiming because of it.
• Cops need to be a little easier to escape from.
• You get a wanted level too easily.
• The game needs to be clearer on how cars are stored and if you lose them or not.
• The satire is hit or miss.

Am I the only one who really enjoys the radio?

Likes:

Great characters

Heists

Intriguing story

Huge, well designed city

Stealth Mechanic

Dislikes:

Can't save your own outfits

Having to retrieve your cars from the impound on any mission that requires you to drive something else

Online shopping often delivers the wrong merchandise

That whole..torture thing.

There's an option to change the crosshair to a more normal one in under gameplay I think.

For cops, I find hiding a lot easier than speeding away.

I've been watching some Republican Space Rangers on youtube though. Any recommendations for GTA IV TV content?

The only gripe I can come up with at the moment is the lack of a metal radio station. Plus the cops are really big dicks in this game. But when you think about how Rockstar probably modeled them after the LAPD that fact suddenly makes a lot more sense.

Trever might be this game's saving grace for me. If you're gonna do a psychopath, at least make him funny/entertaining. The rest of the game just depresses me, which I should write a blog about later.

Yeah - pretty disappointed about that too. One of the first things I went to do was trying to go to my local Clucking Bells to grab some wings. No dice.

I think I just finished the conclusion of with Michael and his family and I must say I really love how they did that in the end. It was just perfect for this family. For me my most favorite Character in this game is Michael.

Just beat it last night...

Likes

• Car Handling is alot better
• Shooting is also better(on foot)
• Random events being random(you can get different results)
• Ability to switch through characters
• Lamar & Trevor
• Choices

Dislikes

• Shooting in car is horrible
• Garage management is horrible, Losing cars that I left in the garage, Losing the mods I've done to the main cars
• Not enough heist missions or missions that give you money
• Radio is the worst in the series
• Random trees and poles that are the immovable objects.
• Car mods are more bad than good
• Nothing on to do north of Los Santos

Looking forward to talking about the end and after credits.

The one thing I dislike? How the framerate meddles with the shooting. When the framerate stutters, it's pretty hard to hit your targets, because it makes the joystick feedback laggy.

@klei: It's especially noticeable when an enemy flanks or comes close to you, it's very hard to hit them (on free aim obviously).

Yeah, the framerate can definitely be troublesome. It wasn't too bad during Los Santos, but it seems a little bit more choppy in Blaine County. In any case, I only just recently discovered you can flip people off while in your vehicle... Now that's some damned innovation!

Flip off a cop to instigate a car chase.

From my experience with GTA V everything you do will instigate a car chase. There was that time where I was ran over by a cop car, only to then pick myself up to a 1-star notoriety rating.

@mr_misery: Go into your Display settings and change the crosshair option to "complex." That should alleviate your first gripe.

Like:

Whole game

Dislike:

You must return real world

more likes:

-the three character thing seems to work out pretty well

and more quibbles:

-the minimap seems to have its own framerate problems???

-I don't understand why I can't open the weapon wheel when i'm in a safehouse. What possible benefit does locking that option out when you're in that location serve?

-No on screen indicator of whether you are or are not currently in stealth mode. No option to map controls so that movement and stealth toggle are not on the same button. I'm constantly going in and out of stealth accidentally as my controller is aging and it clicks in very easily when I move it around.

like: everything but the torture

dislike: the torture.

So my dislike was the lack of hairstyles. I read that you can get some more by connecting to the Social Club.

Where do you connect to the Social Club in game? I can't find anything. I tried on their website as well and the sign in thing is broken... half the time it doesn't register that you click on the text boxes. Strange.

I also read that their hair grows? Can anyone actually confirm that. The people were saying they shaved Trevor's head and he grows it back out. I haven't seen any of that. I'm playing with a shave-headed Franklin and his hasn't grown back.

I'll add one more dislike... filler missions. Missions that are obviously just there for setup. Not a big deal. Just mundane at times. Like the one where you are moving crates on the dock. What fun.